Chapter 8 Mangzi’s papermaking skills!
Ever since Wang Mang's aura as a time traveler broke out and he was successfully cupped in front of Liu Xin and Yang Xiong, the relationship between the three of them became even more harmonious in the following time.
We are sworn brothers.
In the following time, Wang Mang, in addition to helping Liu Xin complete some calculation problems, spent the rest of the time following Yang Xiong wandering in the sea of bamboo slips in Tianlu Pavilion and Shiqu Pavilion, looking for the collection that the Han Dynasty had collected over the past two hundred years.
Get all the literature about local dialects.
While sorting out the ancient documents here, Wang Mang gradually gained a general understanding of the changes in the language and culture of the Central Plains since the Spring and Autumn Period, Qin and Han Dynasties.
Wang Mang was amazed at this and lamented Yang Xiong's knowledge. He could actually find the track of dialect changes in various places in the past dynasties in such a vast amount of documents. Based on this alone, Yang Xiong will definitely be able to leave his name in history and become a cultural peak!
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But the world of genius is never something that mortals can fathom. For a great talent like Yang Xiong, the study of dialects is just his hobby. The orthodox path he admires is still the Confucian classics based on Confucius, and he also has an understanding of the new ideas that have been popular since the Han Dynasty.
The stylistic "Fu" also has quite high attainments!
If the "Fu" written by Yang Xiong can be marketed well, it is estimated that the idiom "Luoyang Zhigui" will be poached from Zhang Heng and become Chang'an Zhigui.
It's a pity that paper in today's era is really expensive. Even a blank piece of paper is incredibly expensive. Except for some prodigal sons who like to use this expensive and smoking Chinese paper to hold cups, normal people will not use today's paper.
Made of Chinese paper.
The quality of today's Chinese paper is not good, and the ink absorption effect is poor. There is a high probability that the characters written on it will be absorbed by the fibers of the paper, turning into a different character.
Therefore, if Yang Xiong wants to get Zhang Heng's title of Luoyang Zhigui, he still has to go a long way.
Of course, the road may not be that long now.
Ever since he used bamboo slips in Tianlu Pavilion to solve the problem of Fang Tian Chapter 1 in the Nine Chapters of Arithmetic, Wang Mang was determined to use his golden fingers as a time traveler to improve papermaking!
In addition to going to Tianlu Pavilion to continue working these days, Wang Mang used his status as the young master of the Wang family to attract two cousins, Wang Kuang and Wang Shun, who were close to him.
The three of them used the authority of the Wang family to pry over a group of papermaking craftsmen from the Shaofu, and then began the work of improving papermaking technology in a manor outside Chang'an City.
Since Wang Mang emerged among the second generation of the Wang family with his excellent academic performance, Wang Kuang and Wang Shun have become Wang Mang's followers. They believe that if they follow the person with the best academic performance in the Wang family, they can win over their parents.
appreciation.
And this is indeed the case. After all, in the eyes of the elders of the royal family, Wang Mang is a good boy who is loved by everyone and has flowers blooming. If his own children play with a good boy like Wang Mang, they will naturally be influenced by him and become...
A good child who is sensitive, studious and filial to his parents.
Therefore, the fathers of Wang Kuang and Wang Shun were also happy to see their children following Wang Mang, and they were impressed by Wang Mang's excellent qualities!
"Brother Mang, what are we going to do?"
Wang Kuang asked Wang Mang puzzledly.
Wang Mang looked at Wang Kuang and said, "We want to make contributions to the Confucian scholars in the world!"
Wang Mang established himself on a moral high ground with just one mouthful!
Wang Kuang looked at the pool that Wang Mang had just ordered the craftsmen to build. He couldn't see how this thing could contribute to the world's Confucian scholars.
However, out of trust and reliance on Wang Mang, Wang Kuang did not ask again.
Wang Mang continued: "Since ancient times, it has been difficult for Confucian students to study. If we can make a tool that facilitates learning for Confucian students all over the world, wouldn't this be making a contribution to the people of the world?"
"Zuo Zhuan" says: The supreme leader has established virtues, followed by meritorious service, and the third has established words. Even if they are not abolished for a long time, this is called immortality. If our brothers can improve the art of papermaking, we can make paper with beautiful texture and high price for the people of the world.
Cheap paper, this achievement will definitely catch up with the three immortal achievements!"
After hearing Wang Mang say these three immortal quotes, both Wang Kuang and Wang Shun became excited, and they looked at Wang Mang with admiration in their eyes.
At this moment, Wang Mang became taller and taller in the eyes of the two of them, and it felt like he was beginning to glow with the holy light.
If papermaking can really work as Wang Mang said, it can be improved to produce high-quality and low-priced paper.
Based on the positive attitude of the two of them to follow Wang Mang in participating, not to mention the impact on their own reputation, if they really create this kind of paper, they will definitely be praised by the elders in the family and become the unicorn sons of the Wang family!<
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Thinking of this, can the two of them not be excited?
While the two of them were excited, Wang Mang felt melancholy in his heart. His technical reserves for papermaking were somewhat lacking.
If it weren't for the fact that the papermaking technology of this era had a certain process, Wang Mang would really be in trouble!
At this time, Wang Mang could only ask the papermaking craftsmen about their papermaking techniques, while trying to recall the papermaking documentaries he watched before traveling through time, and then verify the results in pairs, and then give these papermaking craftsmen some ideas for improvement.
Now after several days of preparation, a large pool for soaking bamboo and bark, hemp heads, rags, old fishing nets and other plant fibers is ready.
Fortunately, there was bamboo in Chang'an in this era, which surprised Wang Mang. Bamboo is the cheapest and cheapest paper-making material.
Therefore, the papermaking technology that Wang Mang wanted to improve was the papermaking technology recorded in the Ming Dynasty.
This technique is divided into five steps, namely cutting the bamboo and floating it on the pond, boiling it over a high fire, pouring the material into the curtain, covering the curtain with paper and drying it in the fire!
As the name suggests, the bamboo-cut floating pond is a large pond built by Wang Mang to soak bamboo, bark, hemp heads, rags, broken fishing nets and other fibrous materials. After the fibrous materials have enough water, they are crushed.
, and then move on to the next step—cooking the fire!
Boiling Lun Zuhuo is to use a large boiler to boil the fiber scraps produced by cutting bamboo and floating in the pond, and boil it into the original usable pulp.
After the pulp is boiled, you can enter the third step - pouring the materials into the curtain!
To put the material into the curtain, you use a flat bamboo curtain to pick up the pulp, filter the water, and become a paper film. This step is also particularly critical. If the technology is not skilled enough, the paper film that is picked up may be uneven in thickness, affecting the quality of the paper.
Texture.
After this step is completed, it is the fourth step of curtain covering and paper pressing!
As the name suggests, curtain-pressing paper is to stack the picked-up paper films layer by layer, press them tightly with wooden boards, and place heavy stones on top to further squeeze out the moisture in the paper.
After reaching this step, the water content in the paper film is not as much as before, and then the last step can be carried out-drying through fire!
Stick the semi-dry paper film next to the fire to dry, and then peel it off to get the finished paper.
Although these five steps of papermaking may seem cumbersome, they are actually extremely advanced compared to the current papermaking technology that is still in the exploratory stage.
In particular, these five steps of operation can be separated in detail and carried out in an assembly line manner. With this scale and assembly line papermaking technology, paper can be continuously produced.
Correspondingly, the price of paper produced in the future will also decrease, becoming a high-quality and low-priced writing material.
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Chapter completed!